One Quality's Hempy Hybrids

[one Q]

This is my take on the hempy bucket. The reason that I felt it could use moding is that watering everyday is not that cool. When you fill the whole bucket with [medium of choice] you waste precious space that could be used for water.

So here are some designs that Ive come up with. Hope this helps someone.

Here's the bottle. This is a 1.5l water bottle ~10"tall and 3" across. The top is cut off and put inside upside down. The cap is thrown away and the tapered end/top acts like a wick. Fill with Coir and perlite mix of choice, with no need for perlite in the bottom.

This is a trash can version. The bottom of the white one was cut at the approriate height and the top half was discarded. Notice the slits in the corners. This is importaint to get them down to the bottom. Then a 2" cup with slits in it is put into the 1&7/8" hole. The hole could be stuffed with a 2" cube of RW too...

 

[one Q]

Here's a 64oz cup

Taped and drilled. Same cup with slits or RW as a wick.

With such a small wick, you dont need perlite in the bottom, so just coir works fine. Though I find it safer to fill the wick cup with perlite then Coir on top. It works fine with the standard perlite:vermiculite (or perlite:turface) mix also.

Peace Yall.

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

OK, I am slow. Pictures are good, but I still don't understand. I must, watering everyday is the big turn off for me w/ Hempy.
1. So the hole in the master bucket I call it, the normal drain hole is there.
2. When you put the false bottom in, there is a hole in the center of that, I got that.
3. So suppose you use a plastic cup like the trash can example there. You cut slits into that and then fill w/ coir or some material that will wick up the water in the res..
So when you water it still fills the rez area under the false bottom right??? Up to where the hole is in the hempy bucket itself, and once it reaches that you get your run off? Is that right?

 

[Marijuanasaur]

OK, I am slow. Pictures are good, but I still don't understand. I must, watering everyday is the big turn off for me w/ Hempy.
1. So the hole in the master bucket I call it, the normal drain hole is there.
2. When you put the false bottom in, there is a hole in the center of that, I got that.
3. So suppose you use a plastic cup like the trash can example there. You cut slits into that and then fill w/ coir or some material that will wick up the water in the res..
So when you water it still fills the rez area under the false bottom right??? Up to where the hole is in the hempy bucket itself, and once it reaches that you get your run off? Is that right?

I have no first hand experience with this, but i'm interested too,

I think you fill the cup (or "wick") with whatever mix you are using that has wicking properties, yes.

and yes, all the water runs to the very bottom and fills the res, while the false bottom you constructed holds up your mix so that it doesn't waste nute space.

What I'd like to know is what type of watering schedules this means for you. As opposed to every 1-2 days, what do you get? like 3? even that would be worth it, im thinking i like this idea so long as it functions just as well.

 

[one Q]

the 1L bottles still need to watered everyday at PEAK flower but all other weeks can be every 2 days or 3, depending on medium.

The 64oz cups go every other day at peak, but if plants are big then that may change obviously.

The cans can go 4days easy.

Marijuanasaur, youre right. it seprates the medium from water and allows more water to be held because the space is not taken up by perlite.

if you do perlite on the bottom and 100% coir on top you can do REZ Recipe and makes things easy.

 

[rollinmachine]

i use a similair method but 2 versions 1 3lt bottle the same way n gota water it least everyother day no drain on the bottom though. gota cut that plant cuz its full of balls. other bottle is similar but instead of the top its the bottom of another bottle inside a bottle 2lt in my case. i cut 1 bottles bottom off at the lil line thats in the plastic under the lable n put holes in the bottom to hold the dirt up i used a bit of hydron in the bottom just enough to cover the holes. again no drain.

 

[Marijuanasaur]

the 1L bottles still need to watered everyday at PEAK flower but all other weeks can be every 2 days or 3, depending on medium.

The 64oz cups go every other day at peak, but if plants are big then that may change obviously.

The cans can go 4days easy.

Marijuanasaur, youre right. it seprates the medium from water and allows more water to be held because the space is not taken up by perlite.

if you do perlite on the bottom and 100% coir on top you can do REZ Recipe and makes things easy.

Do you think the Rez recipe would be the method that got the best results from this type of setup?

His recipe looks easy enough (although I read a lot of ppl saying kool bloom leads to hermies potentially), but to use his recipe you HAVE to use coco?

are you saying put perlite only in the wick at the bottom and have solid coco above that? or do you let the perlite take up more space at the bottom and just have half as much coco on top?

 

[one Q]

Yes. Perlite in the bottom to an inch above the hole and 100% coir on top. OR a good mix 30% or more of perlite and coir and just toss it in. Unless you have picky plants then Id still do Perlite on the bottom.

Even the most picky plants love REZ, tho some may have over N issues, in which case jsut water down the mix by what ever percent makes them happy. I dont know about hermi w/ KB. sounds retarded.

I want to try this with Prime Agra, which are small little hydroton pellets. Reuse. I may do a 100% perlite with this and see what happens. Just dont like feeding all the damn time. Every other day is my goal, but everyday for a week or so isnt so bad.

 

[Carl Carlson]

This is a fantastic thread.

I've been looking at ways of mixing up the Hempy and the EarthTainer too.

In the other direction, what about just adding a filler tube to the Hempy?

 

[Carl Carlson]

DIY with buckets instead of totes:

http://diyrobj98168.blogspot.com/2009/06/self-watering-planters-updated.html

 

[Carl Carlson]

Here is another one. The Dearthbox: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Dearthbox-A-low-cost-self-watering-planter

 

[Swansen]

i just wanted to add what i've found here. I've been trying to figure out for awhile what was meant by "hempy" and this thread helped that out, thanks Q. Alright, on that, this is typically called "sub-irrigation" and its pretty popular among urban growers(produce not MJ). Here is a link to this dudes blog who is all about it, check it out.

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/diy-sub-irrigation/

 

[one Q]

I've had excellent results in micro grows using 2 liter bottles. You could probably get 1.5 L with this method, I cut mine a little shorter to fit my box so they're about 1L volume. Alternatively, you could use 3L bottles.

What I do is cut an empty bottle in half, really a little more than half with the shorter side being the bottom. The top inverted becomes the pot, and it will fit into the cut off bottom which is a runoff/reservoir - or to get a larger pot just cut bottoms from other bottles.

So, the top with cap attached becomes the bottom of the pot. About 2" from the "top" which is now the bottom, I make a series of holes around it. I fill it just past the holes with perlite, clay rocks would work as well, then the coir mix with a bed of perlite on top. I also added a couple of "wicks" made from 1/4" nylon twisted rope from Lowes. These definitely work, I only had to water once or twice a week during flower. The roots will grow through and around the rope to suck up moisture.

One other thing I did, hot melt a piece of screen inside the upper bottle, across the cap opening. This allows me to completely drain it by removing the cap.

Got this from another thread, but thought it should be posted here as it's a great idea.